Charles Leclerc started the 2022 United States Grand Prix from 12th position last Sunday and recovered to third place at the Circuit of the Americas which meant another podium for the Scuderia Ferrari driver, the tenth of the season and fifth in a row, a result which allowed the Monegasque to regain second place in the Drivers standings ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix, as Charles and Sergio Perez battle for P2.
At the beginning of the Austin race, Charles Leclerc had to be cautious in the first meters, which cost an innocent Carlos Sainz dearly, as the Spaniard was hit by George Russell in Turn-1. Gradually, the Monegasque driver started to go gain positions and among the leading drivers he was the one that extended the stint on medium tires the most. Lewis Hamilton previously forced race leader Max Verstappen into the pits, as the Dutchman was starting to extend his lead over the Mercedes driver.
Ferrari decided to keep Charles Leclerc on track and this was rewarded by the Safety Car, which was deployed after Valtteri Bottas spun out and remained stuck in the gravel at the exit of the penultimate corner, Turn 19. In fact, this moment allowed the Ferrari driver to mount the hard compound tires with fewer laps than his rivals and, above all, to recover the gap which was already quite significant.
At the restart, Charles Leclerc remained fairly close to Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton after getting past Sergio Perez with a masterpiece overtaking maneuver. The fact that the medium tires after the first stint were still in excellent condition led Ferrari to question the best strategy: “We thought about the single stop – explained Inaki Rueda, head of strategies at the Ferrari pit wall – we wondered which strategy was more advantageous between a single stop or the two that marked the race of all the competitors. In the end we opted for the latter, returning to the medium compound and we had to be careful in the execution so as not to suffer an undercut. The call was correct and the mechanics did a great job, then we simply didn’t have the pace to stay with Verstappen” – the Ferrari sporting and strategy director explained.
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During the race, Charles Leclerc said over the radio that the team should “consider” “Plan E”, a ‘Plan E’ which in all probability could actually be the one relating to the single stop, in order to recover some the ground lost due to the penalty taken on the starting grid due to the introduction of a new internal combustion engine (ICE) and a new turbo.
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